Monthly Archives: April 2020

HMCS Fredericton’s Helicopter has Crashed

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reports are that the CH148 Cyclone, carried by HMCS Fredericton has crashed in Italian waters. Both the ship and Helicopter are based in Halifax, and were serving with SNMG2 in the Mediterranean Sea.

Fredericton, along with Italian and Turkish ships are searching the area. Reports are 1 body has been found by the Italian frigate, along with debris, and 5 others are missing.

Updates to follow

UPDATE 1: DND has confirmed the Aircraft is missing, and SAR efforts are under way. the CH-148 was lost in the Ionian Sea. Plane spotters indicate Shearwater advised all cylcones to return to base an hour ago.

UPDATE 19:47: Its currently 00:47 in the Ionian sea, Initial reports were 3 hours ago, so this flight would have happened under night time conditions. Weather forecast is clear,light winds 17 degree temp. half moon, so not totally dark.

UPDATE 00:55: RCAF confirmed via tweet family of all those aboard have been notified. should be coming up on Sunrise in the next hour.

UPDATE 0549: the search continues, with an Italian military ATR flying search patterns.

UPDATE 10:55: The Chronicle Herald has identified sub-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough from Eastern Passage as the first victim of the Crash through Facebook posts from her parents.

UPDATE:12:20: the ATR Air search ended at 7:55am our time

News Conference – They have the flight recorders, 5 are still missing.
Sajjan says that Italy, Greece, the US and Turkey are all helping with the search and rescue effort off the coast of Greece.
At 6:52 pm Greece time, HMCS Fredericton lost contact with the helicopter. Soon after, the ship spotted flares that were shot from the water. the voice and data recorders floated away from the helicopters wreckage. “It’s in 3000 M of waters in the Ionian sea”

UPDATE 18:00:
Names of the missing have been released.

Additionally, some tweets from the Turkish military on scene.

Snowbirds Fly Over Sunday?

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Image by MS Roxanne Wood 19 Wing Imaging 2017, DND-MDN Canada CX04-2017-0135-061

The Snow Birds have announced a cross Canada tour. From the release:

The Canadian Forces Snowbirds will cross the country to salute Canadians doing their part to fight the spread of COVID-19. This unique mission is being aptly dubbed Operation Inspiration.
The team’s signature nine-jet formation, with trailing white smoke, will fly over cities across the country starting in Nova Scotia this weekend and working west throughout the week. The team will release anticipated locations, routes, and times on their social media platforms each day. Flyovers will occur at an elevation no lower than 500 feet above all obstacles.

Routes will be posted to the Snowbirds facebook page, and will target residential Neighborhoods and Hospitals.

this post will be updated with more details as they become available.

Bigroll Beaufort.

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Arriving late this afternoon is the the Bigroll Beaufort, loaded with 2 offshore wind turbines for the CVOR, or Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project. The ship will be tieing up at Woodside.

To get around the US Jones act, the Turbine equipment will be delivered to Halifax, where it will be loaded on the Installation vessel Vole au Vent, to then be taken to the installation site off the Virginia Coast. Vole au Vent is still in Rotterdam.

The Jones act is a piece of US legislation that requires any transport of goods between US ports to be done on US Built, Crewed and Flagged ships. Currently there are no US Offshore Wind installation vessels.

From the Project Release:
“Dominion Energy and Ørsted announced today the turbine components and monopiles for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot project have started their journey to North America.

The foundations, consisting of the turbines’ monopiles, transition pieces and anode cages fabricated by EEW SPC, have been loaded onto the Bigroll Beaufort cargo ship in Rostock, Germany. The components for the two, 6-megawatt Siemens Gamesa turbines were loaded in Esbjerg, Denmark, before the vessel embarked in mid-April on the approximately two-week transatlantic journey to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Installation of the two turbines, located 27 miles offshore, is expected to begin later this spring and they are expected to enter service by the end of the year.”

ONE Matrix – Another Magenta ship

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ONE Matrix spent yesterday at Fairview cove. The second magenta colored ONE vessel to Call in Halifax. Given her lightly loaded condition, you can see the Magenta and White funnel striping quite clearly.

the ship was repainted in and renamed in March, so its fresh, and on its first trip out of refit. Infact, when I last looked at the schedule, the ship was still MOL Matrix.

the light load is likely due to the pandemic, with container volumes finally dropping off.

PSA Halifax’s New Cranes Ship

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the Zhen Hua 29 sailed from Shanghai today, with PSA Halifax’s new crane onboard. The ship is currently due to arrive June 22, baring any delays.

Like the other cranes at PSA Halifax, the crane was manufactured by ZPMC, but will be even larger then the two SPPX cranes added in 2013, spanning 24 bays across, vs 22 for the current cranes.

The addition of the new crane, and an option for a second were announced in February 2019, I’m told two tie down locations are being installed at pier41 suggesting the option for a second crane has been exercised.

CSL Tacoma

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CSL Tacoma spent a few days at anchor in the basin, before moving to pier 27 this morning, presumably to take on bunkers. The ship moved to National Gypsum this Afternoon.

Dazzle in the Basin.

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HMCS Moncton in Dazzle paint scheme for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. The ship was Exercising in the basin today.

Sun, May 3rd marks the 75th anniversary. of the Battle of the Atlantic, to commemorate the longest continuous battle for sea-control of the North Atlantic, from 1939-45, between German and Allied navies

Markab

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Markab on Feb 8.

Markab returned to pier 9 this morning. it was last here Feb 8., before sailing to Bridgetown Barbados. Built in Norway in 1976, the ship now is operated by Furgo, and was likely conducting a subsea survey.

Maersk Maker at Pier 9

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The brand New Anchor Handling Supply Tug Maersk Maker arrived this morning at pier 9, after spending yesterday with the crane ship Thialf. The Ship was Built in 2019, and is flagged in St. John Newfoundland.

From Maersk’s brochure on the ship:

Maersk Maker is a DP2 deep water anchor handling tug supply vessel (AHTS) of SALT design. This state-of-the-art vessel is built for deep water anchor handling and oilfield operations with reliability, safety and minimized environmental footprint as a top priority.Powered by five medium speed engines with total output of more than 23,000 horsepower, a fuel efficient and flexible hybrid propulsion system and fixed pitch on all side thrusters, the vessel provides good fuel economy, low emissions and excellent station keeping capabilities (ERN 4 x 99). Also designed for high safe deck operations, the vessel is equipped with a multi deck handler system, anchor recovery frame, gypsy handling system and other aid

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